Troop Crawler
The Troop Crawler is a staple unit for any Chinese commander, effectively filling in different support roles for helping the advance of the Chinese horde. It is China's basic armored personnel carrier (APC) unit as well as their basic stealth detector unit. With recent upgrades, the ever faithful Troop Crawler comes with Propaganda Speakers by default and its armor and detector capabilities can be further enhanced with the Forward Recon Kit add-on. Lore A favorite by Chinese generals despite its considerable years of service, the Troop Crawler is still active within the People’s Liberation Army, delivering the fighting men of the Red Army to the front lines safe and on-time. However, seeing the effectiveness of propaganda effects in battle and seeking a way to enable Chinese forces to access it earlier, the Chinese high command commissioned minor modifications allowing it to be fitted with speaker towers, encouraging those surrounding it to fight with undying resolve, healing injured infantry and repairing damaged vehicles. It also remains one of the only transports to be fitted with sensory gear suitable for the detection of hiding enemies, and plays a vital role in guarding Chinese holdings from infiltration. Upon completion, the Troop Crawler emerges with four Red Guards already inside, their training having been covered as a part of the construction order, and there remain seats for another four infantry as well should the situation warrant extra transportation needs. After the war with GLA, the PLA went out of its way to develop better tools for IED detection and counter-guerrilla operations. The Forward Recon Kit was regarded as the most promising and cost-effective project. It provides the ever-reliable Troop Crawler with a large dish capable of scanning far into unknown territory with a powerful, highly concentrated probing beam. In addition, the vehicle is equipped with reactive armor to protect the passenger compartment from attacks, increasing the overall survivability of the Crawler in a hostile environment. Unit Description The Troop Crawler is a suitable transport for transporting China's mass infantry forces relatively quickly. It is somewhat slow but has the highest Troop Carrying capacity for a transport of its class, being able to carry up to eight battle ready infantry to the front line. It comes with four Red Guard infantry by default to quickly bolster China's number of infantry on the field. The Troop Crawler gains the Horde Bonus when in a group of five or more Chinese vehicles. This has no effect on the crawler itself as it is completely unarmed but it helps to stack with other Chinese vehicles. The Troop Crawler also serves as China's only stealth detector unit. Careful deployment of Troop Crawlers around the base is vital for detecting and countering enemy stealth infiltration commonly practiced by the GLA and the Hero units. While on the offensive China heavily relies on it for early detection of enemy ambushes and stealthed devices like enemy Demo Traps and mines. The Troop Crawler comes with Propaganda Speakers by default and functions as an early, mobile source of propaganda. These speakers continuously broadcast propaganda to motivate friendly troops to fight with undying resolve - increasing the fire rate of friendly troops under its effect by 25%. It also heals friendly infantry and repairs friendly vehicles, including itself, that are within its range. The effectiveness of the propaganda can be doubled with the Subliminal Messaging upgrade. Each Crawler can also be individually upgraded with the Crawler Recon Kit upgrade. This upgrade fits the Crawler with reactive armor, increasing the Crawler's armor by 25%. This combined with the Crawler's self repair through propaganda effectively increases the Crawler's survivability. It also equips the Crawler with Forward Recon kit which increases the Crawler's stealth detection range and gives it the Forward Scan ability. Using this ability the Crawler can perform scans on distant areas by firing a concentrated green probing beam from considerable distance. A moderate area around the target spot of the beam is revealed and stealthed enemy units in the area can be detected. This ability functions similarly to artillery units. The target area remains revealed as long as the Crawler remains stationary and becomes shrouded by the fog of war once again shortly after the Crawler seizes projecting the beam. Careful use of the Forward Recon ability can detect enemy stealthed units early and can function as a spotter for artillery and Generals Power strikes. Gallery China Forward Recon.jpg TroopC 1.jpg Category:People's Republic of China Category:Transports Category:Vehicles